If you’re an engineer, there are likely many employers that want to hire you. The problem is if you don’t know how to market yourself or properly look for a job, getting hired can be harder than you think.
Knowing the most cutting edge programs and having skills beyond every other engineer isn’t enough to get hired. Let’s take a look at some skills you can hone to set yourself apart from other engineers and get that dream job.
Engineers have the tendency to have in-depth resumes that are well organized and, seemingly, easy to understand. The problem is, engineering the perfect resume doesn’t mean having all your experience laid out in double-alphabetical-chronological order (is that a thing?). For most companies, the person who is going to see your resume first is either a computer or an HR manager. Focusing first on a computer filter, you are going to want to be specific on your resume skills. A computer filter will likely have specific buzz words it looks for to pass your resume off to the next step. Instead of saying you have 12 years experience in the IT systems field, say you have 12 years experience in LAN administration, Microsoft SQL, and IBM Netfinity Servers. With that said, pay attention to what job you’re applying for and tailor your resume skills to that job.
Looking next at the HR manager, your resume needs to be visually interesting. If you have any marketing or graphic design friends, now is the time to pick up the phone and give them a call. In reality, there are plenty of resume builders and templates you can use to make your resume more visually appealing. When a person looks at your resume, regardless of skills, they will inherently be more attracted to the more visually appealing document.
Resumes are important, but networking can much more important. This means anything from maintaining your LinkedIn profile to having lunch with an old colleague while you’re in town. This also means that you are going to, unfortunately, break out of your engineering bubble and actually have a conversation. I know this is going to be hard, but I believe in you – I’m an introverted engineer too after all. Proper networking is arguably the most valuable asset to any engineer. When you maintain your network properly, it means that your name is fresh in other engineers’ minds. Fresh in their minds when, say, they are putting together a new team for a project. While it may seem like a lot of work when you may not even be looking for a job right now, maintaining a proper professional network can allow you to be prepared for the unexpected.
Piggybacking off of networking, we find ourselves at another problem. Some of the best engineering jobs aren’t even posted – and sometimes when they are, you can’t find them. When you are properly networked, you can find the perfect engineering job with a little searching. Those unposted jobs have a sneaky way of finding you when you get out there and talk with others in your respective field.
As you may be starting to realize, getting that dream engineering job involves a lot of things that aren’t engineering. It may be time to turn off that AI program you designed to scour the web looking for jobs related to your engineering field and actually get out there and call past colleagues and companies. I suppose you could always have your AI program make those calls too, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
